Dates: 1820 - 1899.

Correspondence, land grants, and business papers of David M., John P., James T., and Thomas L. Darden, and diaries of Mrs. Susan Sillers Darden, of Jefferson County. The 11 land grants are as follows: Archibald Currie, October 8, 1820; Malcom Currie, September 1, 1834; Buckner Madison Darden, November 10, 1840, August 1, 1853, and February 1, 1859; Thomas Rawls, November 10, 1840; and Richard Thames, November 10, 1840, and September 19, 1849.

The letters include J. W. Collier to John P. Darden, December 15, 1857; J. D. Burch to Robert Shotwell, Fayette, November 24, 1860; Put Darden to John P. Darden, University of Mississippi, April 30, 1856; James G. Heard, Washington, Texas, to John P. Darden, July 3, 1858; Thomas J. Heard to John P. Darden, April 17, 1855; Charles T. Miles to E. H. Hicks, Bolivar County, March 19, 1867; and Stephen H. Darden, Wharton, Texas, to Joseph L. Cobb, Alvin, Texas, February 26, 1899.

Other papers pertain to the administration by John P. Darden of Elizabeth Darden's estate, from which Charles and Ann Eliza Clark, James and Sarah H. Stowers, and Samuel H. and Indiana E. Lee inherited; to the Phoenix Grange, No. 5l6, Fayette, n.d., January 31 and May 23, 1874, March 17, 1876 (printed), and August 10, 1878; statements from Franklin Female College, Holly Springs, January 20 and September 20, 1855; agreements between James T. Darden and Sarah Annette Darden regarding Moss Side Plantation and other property in Bolivar County, March 6, 1891, and March 17 and July 16, 1892; deed from Robert and Susan J. Davenport to James Stowers, Christopher Murray, John B. Meyers, David M. Darden, and David S. Burch, trustees of "The Christian Church", for a church site in Fayette, April 18, 1841; and receipts to John P. Darden from the Smithsonian Institution, July 26, 1853, and from the clerk of the court of the Southern District of Mississippi, August 20, 1853, for the deposit of copies of The Secret of Success, or Family Affairs; A memoir, in one Volume. By a Mississippian. 12 [degrees] Cincinnati: Walter Scott, Publisher. "-1853 -pp. 364."

The diaries are of Mrs. Susan Sillers Darden, wife of Jesse H. Darden, a planter who lived in Jefferson County near Fayette. Mrs. Darden was the daughter of Walter and Mourning Kane Sillers; her husband was the son of Buckner M. and Maria Harper Darden. 

The two volumes are as follows:

Diary, June 9, 1853 - December 31, 1861 (some notation as early as January 1, 1851), 474 pp., 20 x 25 cm.

Diary, June 16, 1865 - August 23, 1877, 446 pp., 20 x 31 cm.